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Bazzite Buzz #7: Fedora 39 Builds Out Now

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ATTENTION:

If you installed Bazzite previously with the older ISOs then YOU MAY BE STUCK ON FEDORA 38 BUILDS IF THE INSTALLER INSTALLED A :38 IMAGE AND NOT A :latest IMAGE! If you are unsure and feel like you are not up to date, open a host terminal and enter rpm-ostree status. If it says that your deployment is on :38 then you need to follow these instructions!

Open a host terminal and enter the command below for the image you're using.

  • Bazzite AMD/Intel Desktop: rpm-ostree rebase ostree-image-signed:docker://ghcr.io/ublue-os/bazzite:latest
  • Bazzite Nvidia Desktop: rpm-ostree rebase ostree-image-signed:docker://ghcr.io/ublue-os/bazzite-nvidia:latest
  • Bazzite AMD/Intel Desktop GNOME: rpm-ostree rebase ostree-image-signed:docker://ghcr.io/ublue-os/bazzite-gnome:latest
  • Bazzite Nvidia Desktop GNOME: rpm-ostree rebase ostree-image-signed:docker://ghcr.io/ublue-os/bazzite-gnome-nvidia:latest
  • Bazzite Steam Deck/HTPC/Handheld PC: rpm-ostree rebase ostree-image-signed:docker://ghcr.io/ublue-os/bazzite-deck:latest
  • Bazzite Steam Deck/HTPC/Handheld PC GNOME: rpm-ostree rebase ostree-image-signed:docker://ghcr.io/ublue-os/bazzite-deck-gnome:latest

For specific images that relate to hardware (Framework, Microsoft Surface, ASUS, etc.) see the full image list and make sure "latest" is selected.

After you enter the command, wait for it to finish (this will take a while), and reboot. You should now get the latest updates for Bazzite.

We apologize for the inconvenience if you had to rebase, but you will NOT lose userdata rebasing to the :latest branch of the current image that you are on.

If you tested the Fedora 39 builds of Bazzite early, then you need to rebase back to :latest to be updated to future Bazzite versions as well.


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Welcome to Bazzite 2.0 (New ISOs out now!)

Bazzite is a custom image of Fedora Linux 39 utilizing Universal Blue's custom image framework designed to bring users the best in Linux gaming for their PCs, including the Steam Deck and other handheld PCs. Bazzite's newsletters highlight all of the work we have been doing to bring gamers the best features ready to go for their PCs, home theater setups, and handheld gaming devices.

If you are new to the project then here's how this technology works: Bazzite and other Universal Blue images follow the continuous delivery methodology of development which means we're constantly adding new features and squashing bugs to the image through updates. These updates also include anything directly from upstream (Fedora and Universal Blue) and upgrades from the packages we include.

Today's newsletter focuses primarily on the state of Bazzite today and some new features to the project, including the migration from Fedora 38 to Fedora 39 in our builds. As always, we have the changelog for all of the new features and bug fixes at the end of the newsletter.

Bazzite on Fedora 39

GNOME45

GNOME 45 running on Bazzite, which is now using Fedora 39 as a base.

Bazzite has upgraded from Fedora 38 to Fedora 39 recently. This means all of the changes from Fedora Linux 39 will already be in Bazzite once you update to the latest build.

The highlights of this release are mostly tied to performance, package upgrades, and for those using GNOME images, it is now upgraded to version 45.

The upgrade is automatically done through an update on desktop images and will be there when you reboot. The Steam Deck centric images, the images with Game Mode, will require you to update in Game Mode. Of course, you can open the terminal and enter ublue-update and rpm-ostree update to update through the terminal if you prefer to upgrade immediately. Although there has been inconsistent reports of users stuck on Fedora 38 builds. Please refer to the top of the newsletter to fix that.

Lenovo Legion Go Support

neofetch

Bazzite on the Lenovo Legion handheld PC. Photo taken by Oteresk.

That's right! The Lenovo Legion Go can run Bazzite using the Steam Deck / HTPC images. Install the bazzite-deck or bazzite-deck-gnome image on it to see it in action for yourself.

Lenovo has a consistent track record with hardware with fantastic Linux support. Eventually there might be a dedicated Legion Go image depnding on the circumstances. When this is released, you can rebase to the Legion Go image without having to reinstall. We will keep the community up to date if this happens, but for now you can use it with the generic Steam Deck images with some caveats, but surely as time goes it will improve.

gamemode ingame

Lenovo Legion Go running Game Mode and in-game! Photos taken by Oteresk.

Now, for some bad news. Asus ROG Ally support progress has been halted due to a required kernel module that is not cooperating with the Ally image. We recommend at this time to use ChimeraOS and Nobara if you want a SteamOS-like experience on the Ally. This might be resolved in the future, but this is the hard truth presently that the project is facing with this handheld. It may be revisited at a later time, and anyone who owns this handheld can attempt to figure out the issues if they feel up for the challenge.

Switching Update Branches & Bug Fixes

Users can now switch to different update branches of Bazzite.

  • Latest (default, stable)

  • Testing

  • Unstable (not recommended)

Latest is the default branch and what we generally recommend for most users to stay on. Testing is a preview of what's to come, and unstable is only recommended for advanced users and is exactly how it sounds.

Waydroid has improved since it was first packaged in Bazzite. Lots of bug also have been squashed the last couple of weeks. OpenRazor should function properly now once installed through the Bazzite Portal. Lutris should no longer complain about missing Wine dependencies, and Nix applications should have icons.

DaVinci Resolve Container & Bluefin Beta

Slightly off-topic from Bazzite, but some related news that applies to the Universal Blue project as a whole.

For the video editing enthusiasts out there, if you use DaVinci Resolve and want to get it working well on Bazzite or any Universal Blue image, check out this article that goes over in detail how to get DaVinci Resolve working inside of its own container.

Bluefin

Bluefin showcase by Justin Garrison.

While we're on the topic of Universal Blue, Bluefin is another Universal Blue image centered around an Ubuntu-like experience, but using the Fedora Linux technology that Bazzite users are already familiar with. A great image to install on a laptop or workstation. If you want a developer-focused OS in the same nature as Bazzite, then give it a shot even if it's in a virtual machine for testing purposes!

Closing Thoughts

Bazzite and its community has grown extraordinarily since we first started. The project is now established and can move forward focusing on stability and hardware support. The future of Bazzite will be focused on keeping up with feature parity of SteamOS, getting other hardware to work on it, and taking cues from the feedback we have received to make a better image for everyone.

There has also been users in our community who would prefer not to use Discord as a communication method for support or discussion. A user has suggested to have an unofficial Matrix room. However, the maintainers of the images may not be as present, if at all, for any alternative means of communication outside of Discord and the Github discussions. This is detrimental for support, but we are not against a community forming outside of the official communication channels discussing and helping each other surrounding the Universal Blue projects including Bazzite

Bazzite still has the feeback survey open if anyone who hasn't taken it yet is still interested.

We would like to thank our community for helping the project grow into what it is today. New users who want to give Bazzite a try, here is the the latest releases.

Changelog

New Features

  • Bazzite has now upgraded from Fedora 38 to Fedora 39, here are the major changes:
    • GNOME is now on version 45
      • Check out all the major changes here.
    • Newer base packages.
    • Performance improvements.
    • Colored Bash prompt.
    • Full changelog for Fedora 39
  • Newly updated ISOs for Fedora 39.
  • Lenovo Legion GO support.
    • Hardware control.
    • Controller support.
    • Orientation fixes.
  • Support for switching update branches.
    • Latest (Default), Testing, and Unstable (Not recommended).
  • Waydroid support has improved.
    • Hybrid graphic support out of the box.
    • Wayland launcher will now automatically initialize.
    • Set density and Gralloc before launch.
  • Added Gamescope-Session-Plus.
  • Added gperftools for older Source engine titles.
  • Added kdeplasma-addons for KDE images.
  • Added steam-proton-mf-wmv utility.
  • Added LatencyFleX-Installer.
  • Added QTVirtualKeyboard for SDDM for Steam Deck / HTPC images.
  • Added vk_hdr_layer for experimental HDR support.
  • Added support for using ryzenadj for other hardware from corando98's steam-patch fork.

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed a mistaken dependency issue in Lutris.
  • Fixed OpenRazer not installing in the Bazzite Portal.
  • Dropped VHS, keep gum.
  • Replaced TF2 fix with LD_PRELOAD method.
  • Fixed nested GNOME sessions for most applications (besides Flatpak Firefox).
  • Fixed icons not appearing for Nix applications.
  • Switched to layered OpenRazor due to issues with Distrobox containerization.
  • Fixed several ASUS build issues.
  • Added Minimum-free ZRAM configuration.
  • Massively improved steamos-priv-write.
  • Bazzite Portal now displays Bazzite's page on Universal Blue's website when you click on "Website".
  • Improve BIOS update disabling feature for Steam Deck images.
  • Restored Simple Direct Rendering Manager for Steam Deck images.

Bazzite 2.0

Tagline

20

Welcome to "Phase II" of Bazzite


ATTENTION:

If you installed Bazzite previously with the older ISOs then YOU MAY BE STUCK ON FEDORA 38 BUILDS IF THE INSTALLER INSTALLED A :38 IMAGE AND NOT A :latest IMAGE! If you are unsure and feel like you are not up to date, open a host terminal and enter rpm-ostree status. If it says that your deployment is on :38 then you need to follow these instructions!

Open a host terminal and enter the command below for the image you're using.

  • Bazzite AMD/Intel Desktop: rpm-ostree rebase ostree-image-signed:docker://ghcr.io/ublue-os/bazzite:latest
  • Bazzite Nvidia Desktop: rpm-ostree rebase ostree-image-signed:docker://ghcr.io/ublue-os/bazzite-nvidia:latest
  • Bazzite AMD/Intel Desktop GNOME: rpm-ostree rebase ostree-image-signed:docker://ghcr.io/ublue-os/bazzite-gnome:latest
  • Bazzite Nvidia Desktop GNOME: rpm-ostree rebase ostree-image-signed:docker://ghcr.io/ublue-os/bazzite-gnome-nvidia:latest
  • Bazzite Steam Deck/HTPC/Handheld PC: rpm-ostree rebase ostree-image-signed:docker://ghcr.io/ublue-os/bazzite-deck:latest
  • Bazzite Steam Deck/HTPC/Handheld PC GNOME: rpm-ostree rebase ostree-image-signed:docker://ghcr.io/ublue-os/bazzite-deck-gnome:latest

For specific images that relate to hardware (Framework, Microsoft Surface, ASUS, etc.) see the full image list and make sure "latest" is selected.

After you enter the command, wait for it to finish (this will take a while), and reboot. You should now get the latest updates for Bazzite.

We apologize for the inconvenience if you had to rebase, but you will NOT lose userdata rebasing to the :latest branch of the current image that you are on.

If you tested the Fedora 39 builds of Bazzite early, then you need to rebase back to :latest to be updated to future Bazzite versions as well.


It has been nearly 3 months later since releasing Bazzite to the public, and since then the team and the community has added tons of new features, enhancements, and bug fixes to the images.

The functionality is already there for Bazzite and utilizing new desktop model can be successful, and now the focus is on having a better user experience.

The new Bazzite builds have now upgraded to Fedora Linux 39. The project is now at a point where it is completely functional as is on standard hardware (and the Steam Deck.)

Bazzite's original purpose was to be a version of SteamOS that allowed for flexible functionality for users who found SteamOS to be too limiting, or felt SteamOS couldn't be a proper desktop Linux operating system. The project has now expanded has now grown and expanded drastically to work on multiple hardware configurations outside of the Steam Deck, and being a desktop SteamOS clone.

We would like to thank our growing community for supporting and sending feedback which helps us improve the project.

What is Bazzite?

Bazzite is an OCI image that serves as an alternative operating system for the Steam Deck, and a ready-to-game SteamOS-like for desktop computers and living room home theater PCs.

Bazzite is built from ublue-os/main and ublue-os/nvidia using Fedora technology, which means expanded hardware support, built in drivers, mutli-media codecs are included.

KDE Vapor Theme

Bazzite running KDE Plasma

Bazzite Features

Features for All of the Bazzite Images

  • Proprietary Nvidia drivers pre-installed.
  • Full hardware accelerated codec support for H264 decoding.
  • Full support for AMD's ROCM OpenCL/HIP run-times.
  • xone, xpadneo, and xpad-noone drivers for Xbox controllers.
  • Full support for DisplayLink.
  • Includes Valve's KDE themes from SteamOS.
  • LatencyFleX, vkBasalt, MangoHud, and OBS VkCapture installed and available by default
  • Support for Wallpaper Engine. (Only on KDE)
  • ROM Properties Page shell extension included.
  • Full support for Winesync/Fastsync/NTsync.
  • Distrobox preinstalled with automatic updates for created containers.
  • Automated duperemove and rmlint services for reducing the disk space used by wine prefix contents.
  • Support for HDMI CEC via libCEC.
  • System76-Scheduler preinstalled, providing automatic process priority tweaks to your focused application and keeping CPU time for background processes to a minimum.
  • Customized System76-Scheduler config with additional rules.
  • Uses Google's BBR TCP congestion control by default.
  • Input Remapper preinstalled and enabled. (Available but default-disabled on the Deck variant)
  • Bazzite Portal provides an easy way to install numerous applications and tweaks, including installing CoreCtrl and GreenWithEnvy.
  • Nix package manager with Fleek optionally available for install via Bazzite Portal.
  • Brew package manager optionally available for install via Bazzite Portal.
  • Waydroid preinstalled for running Android apps. Future releases will offer to set this up for you through Bazzite Portal. (Not available on Nvidia builds)
  • Manage applications using Flatseal, Warehouse, and Gear Lever.
  • OpenRGB i2c-piix4 and i2c-nct6775 drivers for controlling RGB on certain motherboards.
  • OpenRazer drivers built in, Select OpenRazer in Bazzite Portal or run just install-openrazer in a terminal to begin using it.
  • OpenTabletDriver udev rules built in, with the full software suite installable via Bazzite Portal or by running just install-opentabletdriver in a terminal.
  • GCAdapter_OC driver for overclocking Nintendo's Gamecube Controller Adapter to 1000hz polling.
  • Out of the box support for Wooting keyboards.
  • Built in support for Southern Islands (HD 7000) and Sea Islands (HD 8000) AMD GPUs under the amdgpu driver.
  • A fix is available for a TF2 bug that makes the game crash on launch - just patch-tf2-tcmalloc
  • XwaylandVideoBridge is available for Discord screensharing on Wayland. (Only on KDE)

Waydroid

Bazzite can run Android inside of a container.

Features for Desktop Images

Common variant available as bazzite, suitable for desktop computers.

  • Runs Steam and Lutris in a custom Arch Linux OCI via Distrobox. (Except on Nvidia)
  • Automatic updates for the OS, Flatpaks, Nix packages (Via Fleek), and all Distrobox containers.

Features for Steam Deck, Home Theater PCs, & Handheld PC Images

Steam Game Mode

Game Mode functions as expected.

[!IMPORTANT]
Devices that are NOT the Steam Deck can still use the bazzite-deck images, but must use an AMD/Intel GPU.

Variant designed for usage as an alternative to SteamOS on the Steam Deck, and for a console-like experience on HTPCs, available as bazzite-deck:

  • Directly boots to Gamemode matching SteamOS's behavior.
  • Automatic duperemove greatly trims the size of compatdata.
  • Latest version of Mesa creates smaller shader caches and does not require them to prevent stutter.
  • Able to be booted even if the drive is full.
  • Support for every language supported by upstream Fedora.
  • Optionally use Wayland on the desktop with support for Steam input.
  • Features ported versions of most SteamOS packages, including drivers, firmware updaters, and fan controllers from the evlaV repository.
  • Patched Mesa for proper framerate control from Gamescope.
  • Comes with patches from SteamOS BTRFS for full BTRFS support for the SD card by default.
  • Ships with a ported copy of SDGyroDSU, enabled by default.
  • Option to install Decky Loader, EmuDeck, RetroDECK, and ProtonUp-Qt, among numerous other useful packages on installation.
  • Custom update system allows for the OS, Flatpaks, Nix packages (Via Fleek), and Distrobox images to be updated directly from the Gamemode UI.
  • Built in support for Windows dual-boot thanks to Fedora's installation of GRUB being left intact.
  • Update break something? Easily roll back to the previous version of Bazzite thanks to rpm-ostree's rollback functionality. You can even select previous images at boot.
  • Steam and Lutris preinstalled on the image as layered packages.
  • Discover Overlay for Discord pre-installed and automatically launches in both Gamemode and on the Desktop if Discord is installed. View the official documentation here.
  • Uses ZRAM(4GB) with the ZSTD compression algorithm by default with the option to switch back to a 1GB swap file and set a custom size for it if desired.
  • Kyber I/O scheduler to prevent I/O starvation when installing games or during background duperemove and rmlint processes.
  • Applies SteamOS's kernel parameters.
  • Color calibrated display profiles for matte and reflective Steam Deck screens included.
  • Default-disabled power-user features, including:
    • Service for low-risk undervolting of the Steam Deck via RyzenAdj and Ryzen SMU, see ryzenadj.service and /etc/default/ryzenadj.
    • Service for limiting the max charge level of the battery, see batterylimit.service and /etc/default/batterylimit. (Works even when the device is off)
    • Built in support for display overclocking. For example, add GAMESCOPE_OVERRIDE_REFRESH_RATE=40,70 to /etc/environment.
    • Ability to enable Wayland on the desktop if desired by editing /etc/default/desktop-wayland.
    • 32GB RAM mod your Steam Deck? Enjoy double the maximum VRAM amount, automatically applied. (Can you share your soldering skills?)
  • Steam Deck hardware-specific services can be disabled by running just disable-deck-services in the terminal, useful for trying this image on other handhelds or for use on HTPCs.

Features for GNOME Images (Alternative Desktop Environment)

GNOME Vapor Theme

Bazzite running GNOME.

Builds with the GNOME desktop environment are available in both desktop and deck flavors. These builds come with the following additional features:

Features from Upstream

Universal Blue
  • Flathub is enabled by default.
  • just commands for convenience.
  • Multi-media codecs out of the box.
  • Rollback Bazzite from any build within the last 90 days.
Features from Fedora Linux (Kinoite & Silverblue)
  • A rock solid and stable base.
  • System packages stay relatively up to date.
  • Can layer Fedora packages to the image without losing them between updates.
  • Security focused with SELinux preinstalled and configured.
  • The ability to rebase to different Fedora libostree images, if desired, without losing user data.
  • Printing support thanks to CUPS being preinstalled.

Current Status

Bazzite is in a much better state than it was at the 1.0 release. The first couple of months have been working towards having a stable experience and adding new features that sets this image apart from other desktop Linux distributions.

Installer issues from upstream still plague the user experience unfortunately. However, things are looking up, so perhaps in the near future this will not be an issue anymore. Post-installation, you should be able to use Bazzite on your device smoothly, but please let us know if you experience any issues.

Install Bazzite Today!

Install Bazzite today from the latest ISO on the releases page.

Special Thanks

Bazzite is a community effort and wouldn't exist without everyone's support. Below are some of the people who've helped us along the way:

  • rei0260 - For creating our logo and overall branding.
  • evlaV - For making Valve's code available and for being this person.
  • ChimeraOS - For gamescope-session and for valuable support along the way.
  • Jovian-NixOS - For supporting us with technical issues and for creating a similar project. Seriously, go check it out. It's our Nix-based cousin.
  • Steam Deck Homebrew - For choosing to support distributions other than SteamOS despite the extra work, and a special thanks to PartyWumpus for getting Decky Loader working with SELinux for us.
  • cyrv6737 - For the initial inspiration and the base that became bazzite-arch.

Join The Community!

Bazzite is an open source project, contributions and feedback accepted! You can find us on the Universal Blue Discord.


Bazzite Buzz #6: Bazzite Rebrand

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Happy Early Halloween! 🎃

It has been a while since our last newsletter, and this was intended to be published with the release of Fedora 39. Fedora 39 builds were intended to release originally on October 24th. Fedora 39 was delayed until October 31st, and now it lands on November 7th after another delay unless the blockers get resolved before. However, you can test and preview the Fedora 39 builds of Bazzite right now. Instructions on that later on. This post has to cover a ton of new features that came out since the last newsletter, so let's get started!

Bazzite is a custom image of Fedora 38 (and eventually 39) utilizing Universal Blue's custom image framework designed to bring users the best in Linux gaming for their PCs, including the Steam Deck. This newsletter highlights all of the work we have been doing to bring gamers the best features ready to go for their PCs, home theater setups, and handheld gaming devices.

If you are new to the project then here's how it works. They follow the continuous delivery methodology of development which means we're constantly adding new features and squashing bugs to the image through updates. These updates also include any updates directly from upstream from Fedora or upgrades from packages we include.

This newsletter's highlight is all about the rebranding that Bazzite has undergone a couple of weeks ago. This new branding has affected not only the documentation, but also appears throughout all of the images.

Rebranding

image

image

Bazzite has rebranded thanks to the design work of rei. This new branding will also appear in Bazzite now by default. Previously, the project only displayed the Fedora and SteamOS branding, but now the project has a standalone identity. There are also new user avatars based on Valve games for both KDE and GNOME images of Bazzite. You can change to any of these in the settings.

New Valve themed avatars for KDE & GNOME user avatars.

Nvidia Rework, OBS-VKCapture, and Other New Additions

Nvidia images have now been reworked to Steam, Lutris vkBasalt, MangoHUD, Vulkan-Tools, and LatencyFlex as part of the image as opposed to using the bazzite-arch Distrobox container like the AMD/Intel images. This was due to issues with Nvidia 32-bit libraries in the container, and it was just simpler to have these packages as part of the host. We would prefer not to have these packages on the host like this, but dealing with Nvidia's proprietary driver erratic behavior has made this the best solution for now.

A stress test of Crysis recorded with OBS-VKCapture with hardware encoding (VA-API H.264) on a Steam Deck in Game Mode.

OBS-VKCapture is now added to easily record videos using hardware acceleration. This also works in Game Mode meaning you can record your games without the use of a capture card. If you are interested in trying this out in Game Mode, then open the game properties for the game you want to record and enter OBS_VKCAPTURE=1 %command% in the launch options.

image

Example of a GNOME desktop nested inside of a GNOME desktop.

Other new features like the ability for your Steam Deck, handheld PC, or HTPC to have nested desktops. Now you can run Desktop Mode inside of Game Mode without the inconvenience of switching between the two. Unfortunately, GNOME images cannot run applications in this nested desktop currently, but KDE images work fine right now. Also, these Game Mode centric images can turn off the screen when the device shuts off through libCEC with compatible devices and HDMI cables. Windows files will now display metadata information for the appropriate files. For example, Windows executables that have an icon will now display that icon in the file manager.

Media Coverage & Translations

Bazzite and Universal Blue have been showcased by a ton of different Youtube content creators and news publications. Most of these videos and articles are in English, but here is a showcase of Bazzite by a popular Brazilian Linux content creator:

Translations to Bazzite's documentation in different languages would be appreciated! The Linux desktop is used internationally, and it would be great for the Bazzite documentation to reflect that. If anyone would like to make translations for the project, then please feel free to contribute. Bazzite already has multiple language support due to Fedora already providing that for us, but our documentation is only avaliable in English currently.

While we're on the topic of media coverage, special thanks to everyone who has made a video or written an article about Bazzite. We are humbled by all of the support from our community and are grateful for those promoting the project.

Closing Thoughts, Fedora 39 Testing, Bluefin, and Survey

We are nearing the 2.0 release of Bazzite. It has been both a bumpy yet exciting ride few months releasing Bazzite out into the wild. Our goal is to have Bazzite remain a very stable and consistent experience across different hardware and configurations when the Fedora 39 builds are out. We had fixed edge-case scenarios and issues that had gone overlooked for the last three months. However, one of the major issues that has plagued Bazzite since we released ISOs is Fedora's installer not cooperating with our OCI image method.

Fedora 39 can be tested right now by rebasing to the 39 builds. These Bazzite builds are considered "Release Candidate (RC)" right now, but there will be missing packages since many repositories do not build for unstable versions of Fedora. If you want to test it now, open a host terminal and enter the command based on the image you're using. Here are some examples:

rpm-ostree rebase ostree-image-signed:docker://ghcr.io/ublue-os/bazzite:39 for the AMD/Intel Desktop image

rpm-ostree rebase ostree-image-signed:docker://ghcr.io/ublue-os/bazzite-deck:39 for the Steam Deck / HTPC image.

Refer to the Universal Blue full image list and replace :latest with :39 for the image you're currently on to upgrade to the Fedora 39 builds right now. Please note: Once you rebase to the 39 testing builds, you will have to rebase back to :latest once Fedora 39 is out. When Fedora 39 has a stable release, then it will be upgraded for everyone in an update.

For those waiting on ASUS ROG Ally support, a lot of work has been done these past weeks to get it working properly. The current state of Bazzite on the Ally is that it's slowly working. We are hoping to resolve this in the coming months, but for those curious, the bazzite-ally does boot with major controller issues right now. If you would like to help debug Bazzite on the ASUS ROG Ally, or other unique handheld hardware, then get in touch with us. There are already trackers for other handheld hardware right now. We would like to thank everyone who has been helping us with proper support for all of the other handheld devices on the market.

We would like to thank our community for helping the project grow into what it is today. Universal Blue has announced a new image coming to beta soon known as Bluefin. It is a Fedora Linux image which is a curated GNOME experience that has the reliability of ChromeOS, but with the power of the modern Linux desktop. Bazzite is the more gaming focused between the two, but Bluefin offers the bazzite-arch Distrobox container which is utilized in the Bazzite desktop images. Bluefin also allows developers to have access to many of the standard tools and container-focused work environments with a single command. Give it a try sometime, and this is a reminder that anyone can make their own custom image for Fedora.

Lastly, we have a survey out now that we encourage you to fill out for feedback on the project. We also want to gather statistics on what hardware that Bazzite is being installed on. Thank you in advance if you participate in it. This should only take about 5 minutes to complete.

Bazzite GIF

Rebranding GIF by Gecked.

Changelog👻

New Features

  • Branding has been updated!
    • New neofetch logo.
    • New boot logo.
    • New Bazzite Portal logo.
    • New logo appears throughout in both KDE Plasma and GNOME images.
    • New user avatars based on Valve games.
  • Nvidia images have now switched Steam from Distrobox container to having these packages apart of the image to avoid issues with 32-bit libraries.
    • This change also means we removed the bazzite-arch distrobox container from Nvidia images.
    • Lutris, LatencyFlex, vkBasalt, MangoHUD, and Vulkan-Tools are also now part of the image.
  • Switch to new obs-vkcapture package.
  • Added CEC control to all images. (Thanks to BoukeHaarsma23 and ChimeraOS!)
  • Enabled Steam Patch for any hardware other than Steam Deck
    • Users no longer have to select "Native" in a game properties in Game Mode.
  • Added nautilus integration for GSConnect. (KDE Connect for GNOME)
    • Default on Steam Deck, HTPC, and Handheld PC images.
    • Edit /etc/default/cec-control to change behavior.
  • Added Winesync/Fastsync/NTSync support.
  • Disabled split lock mitigation for increased gaming performance. (Thanks Saber J2X!)
  • Added message to plymouth during long bazzite-hardware-setup steps.
  • RazorGenie is now added to OpenRazor installation in the Bazzite Portal.
  • Added icons for Windows applications (.exe, .msi, etc.) in the file manager.
  • Enable automounting of hugepages with 1GB pagesize if specific kernel arguments are present.
  • Include vulkan-tools and clinfo in all images.
  • Added virtual audio channels for special usecases.
  • Added Virtual Surround 7.1 setup to just.
    • Added a basic virtual surround 7.1 config using ASH Control Room 1.
  • Added support for Looking Glass.
  • Added Resources, AppImage Pool and Pika Backup to Bazzite Portal.
  • Added Warehouse as a preinstalled application to manage Flatpaks.
  • Both KDE and GNOME can now screen share properly under Wayland.
  • GNOME images now switch to new Logo Menu fork by Bazzite.
  • GNOME images now have a "Add to Steam" option to right click menu.
  • New Tailscale extension for GNOME images.
  • Added default dash application assignments for GNOME images.
  • Use new privileged user setup script for certain tasks.
  • Increased priority of sysctl changes.
  • Added CharmVHS & CharmGUM for future use in just commands.
  • Doubled zram size on 32GB of RAM hardware modded Steam Decks.
  • Deck images have Steam shortcuts for Waydroid including icons and input settings.
  • Deck images have a new SteamOS Nested Desktop feature.
    • GNOME images cannot launch any application in these nested desktop sessions currrently due to upstream issues.
  • Deck images now have increased ZRAM size to 4GB by defaul & performance improvements. (Thanks Saber J2X!)
  • Deck images now block additional AMD watchdog kernel modules to improve performance.
    • We also added the option to enable these watchdog kernel modules back
      • just enable-watchdog to enable and just disable-watchdog to disable.
  • Deck images switched to stable Decky Loader releases.

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed boot issues.
  • Tons of steam-patch fixes.
    • HandyGCCS is now added back too.
  • Corrected hostname check. (Thanks szescxz!)
  • Moved obs-vkcapture to Nvidia & Deck images only.
  • Added some safety checks to ensure flathub is enabled
  • Start Solaar minimized by default on login.
  • Tidy up Nix installation.
  • Moved fstab changes to prevent any issues on a rebase.
  • Enabled initramfs generation for LUKS.
  • Remove non-working gsetting call.
  • Minor cleanup to just.
  • Fixed EmuDeck not working on Steam Deck images.
  • Increased default battery limit on Steam Deck images.
  • Fixed a lot of issues with Nvidia images.
  • Fixed bluetooth controllers disconnecting.
  • Fixed Bazzite Portal issues.
  • Fixed just reset-waydroid command not working.
  • Fixed OpenTabletDriver not installing in Bazzite Portal.
  • Fixed Krita installing Ardour in the Bazzite Portal.
  • Fixed missing first-launch call in Waydroid.
  • Fixed zram-resize.
  • Display an error if a Flatpak fails to install in the Bazzite Portal.
  • Corrected issue with screen rotation on non-deck hardware using the Steam Deck images.
  • Corrected mismatched curl version in install.
  • Dropped DNS over TLS and SNTP due to reported issues/edge cases.
    • Will re-introduce as an option in Bazzite Portal at a later time.
  • Removed rd.luks.options=discard & use --append-if-missing for kernel arguments.
  • GNOME images have restored appindicator extension.

Bluefin is on its way to Beta

After nearly two(!) years of prototyping and testing, Bluefin is on its way to Beta! We're hoping to do the final release of the beta on November 1st, so we'd like to spend a some time testing the ISO.

Bluefin is an interpretation of the Ubuntu spirit built with Fedora technology. It's a familiar(ish) Ubuntu desktop for Fedora Silverblue. It strives to cover these three use cases:

  • For users it provides a system as reliable as a Chromebook with near-zero maintenance, with the power of Ubuntu and Fedora fused together.
  • For developers we endeavour to provide the best cloud-native developer experience by enabling easy consumption of the industry's leading tools. These are included in dedicated bluefin-dx and bluefin-dx-nvidia images.
  • For gamers we strive to deliver a world-class gaming experience via Flathub or bazzite-arch

A good internet connection is required.

bluefin-38-2023-10-27-x86_64.iso

Instructions

  • Follow the installation instructions for current known issues:
  • Dual boot configurations are not supported
  • Manual partitioning is not suppported.
  • Installation progress will appear to have stalled but is progressing in the background
  • Applications like Firefox and other core apps will be installed on login, this might take a while depending on your internet connection speed. The system will notify you when it is completed:

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Thanks!

Special thanks to akdev1l, bobslept, and gerblesh for their hard work over the past few weeks to make this happen.

Universal Core Gains NVIDIA Support

Universal Core is a Universal Blue custom image of Fedora CoreOS.

While Universal Blue has been receiving much attention on the desktop; Universal Core (ucore) has been quietly growing its own set of features for the server side of things.

Announcing NVIDIA Support

Today we get to announce a long awaited feature: ucore finally has images available with NVIDIA drivers built in!

As one of our oldest feature requests, which also happend to be created on April 1st, some probably wondered if it was an April Fools Day joke. But no, 6 months later, the feature has landed.

NVIDIA for a Homelab

What could this feature provide a CoreOS/ucore user with an NVIDIA card?

Typically its going to be one of:

  • CUDA for AI, or other GPU accelerated workloads
  • transcoding video, especially useful for users lacking newer Intel GPUs with QuickSync

FrigateNVR is a great example of a self-hostable open source project which can use both video transcode capabilities and compute capabilities to power a smart home camera solution.

Details

What's actually included with this "NVIDIA feature"?

  1. nvidia kernel driver
  2. nvidia-container-toolkit
    • CoreOS is focussed on container workloads, and to use NVIDIA on containers, you need their toolkit.
    • The latest version is installed here which simultaneously supports both root and rootless containers.
    • Both podman and docker can be used.
  3. nvidia container selinux policy
    • NVIDIA's toolkit docs give examples of running with SELinux disabled on the container: podman run --security-opt label=disable --device=nvidia.com/gpu=all ubuntu nvidia-smi but some users may want more security.
    • This policy can preserve other SELinux protections while still providing access to the GPU: podman run --security-opt label=type:nvidia_container_t --device=nvidia.com/gpu=all ubuntu nvidia-smi
Older GPUs

If you need an older (or different) driver, there are other ways to install a driver. Our approach is meant to be the easiest for the widest group of users.

Non-NVIDIA Features

Universal Core has plenty to offer even if you don't run NVIDIA GPUs in your server, want to host virtual machines, or even run it in a virtual machine!

Here's a quick summary of what we have to offer:

ucore images add the following to CoreOS:

ucore-hci builds upon ucore to provide "hyper-converged infrastructure". These images add more hardware/driver support, more storage tools, and virtualization(hypervisor) support:

Testers Wanted!

There's still feature requests in the pipeline and opportunities to contribute. Just using ucore and providing feedback is incredibly helpful!

If you are interested in using something like Universal Blue, but on a server, take a look at ucore today.

Bazzite Buzz No. 5

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IMPORTANT: MANUAL INTERVENTION REQUIRED

If you installed a Bazzite image on any device before September 22, 2023 or used the older offline ISO then open a host terminal and enter rpm-ostree update, and wait for it to upgrade to the latest build. Reboot your device after it has finished. More information on this here.


Welcome to Bazzite Buzz #5!

Bazzite is a custom image of Fedora 38 designed to being the best in Linux gaming to your PCs, including the Steam Deck. This newsletter highlights all the work we have been doing to bring gamers the best goodies for their PCs and handheld gaming devices.

If you are new to a Universal Blue project then here's how they work then here's how they work. They follow the continuous delivery methodology of development. That means we're constantly adding new things, so let's get started!

We have been preparing for the stable release of Fedora 39 and will plan to switch builds over there within the next two weeks. Nvidia images for ASUS and Microsoft Surface hardware is now available. We also added dependencies needed for the DaVinci Resolve video editor in case you wanted that. The unrar library is included in the image which should resolve issues users may experience with certain compressed file formats.

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Bazzite Portal has new additions

Bazzite Portal now features more software including the Brew package manager, OpenTabletDriver, and Wootility. It also features the unofficial Final Fantasy XIV launcher since it works better for Linux than the default method.

Steam Deck images now include a ton of performance optimizations taken from this Medium article. These tweaks in theory should give a slight performance increase versus stock SteamOS, but we never attempted benchmarks yet to actually confirm this. Maybe for a later time unless someone out there wants to volunteer and benchmark both operating systems.

Waydroid support has also been both streamlined and improved tremendously. Controllers should work well with it now. Steam Deck images should have a working quick access menu with it and plus the addition of the framerate limiter working with Android applications to our surprise.

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Waydroid on the Steam Deck running in Game Mode

Open a host terminal and enter just init-waydroid and it should setup Waydroid for you. Keep in mind you may need to set SELinux to permissive, but there has been conflicting reports on this. If you are experiencing issues then enter sudoedit /etc/selinux/config and changing SELINUX=enforcing to SELINUX=permissive. If you want extra goodies to Waydroid like ARM translation then enter just configure-waydroid.

We are now focusing on having an extremely stable and consistent experience across different hardware. We are also planning on proper support for the ASUS ROG Ally and other handheld PCs, and have already accomplished some of the ground work necessary. We still consider both the ROG Ally and other handheld PCs as an alpha at this moment, and users will encounter major issues until they are resolved.

As always, we'd like to thank all of our contributors and those who are helping us troubleshoot any issues in our newer builds. The next Bazzite Buzz will focus on the transition from Fedora 38 to Fedora 39, so stay tuned for that.

Features

  • Nvidia support for ASUS and Microsoft Surface images.
    • Not available on the current ISO. Until new ones are released, you could still rebase to these. Start with a bazzite-nvidia installation and rebase:
      • ASUS Nvidia: rpm-ostree rebase ostree-image-signed:docker://ghcr.io/ublue-os/bazzite-asus-nvidia:latest
      • Surface Nvidia: rpm-ostree rebase ostree-image-signed:docker://ghcr.io/ublue-os/bazzite-surface-nvidia:latest
  • Streamlined Waydroid by adding Weston launcher using polkit to start and stop the service.
  • Added controller support to Waydroid.
  • The frame limiter in Game Mode now works for Android games in Waydroid.
  • Added dependencies required by DaVinci Resolve
  • Added the unrar library.
  • Added Brew package manager to Bazzite Portal
    • If you opt to use Brew, it will also auto-update those packages as needed.
  • OpenTabletDriver has been added to Bazzite Portal
  • Added XIV Launcher to Bazzite Portal.
  • Added option to download Wootility to Bazzite Portal.
  • Added option to force Discover Overlay to launch on GNOME Wayland.
  • Added a just command to enable virtualization and vfio for desktop images.
  • Upgraded Discover Overlay to version 0.6.9
  • Upgraded Greenlight to 2.0.0-beta14 in Bazzite Portal. Keep in mind Gear Lever constantly allows this and other AppImages to get updated post-installation.
  • Advanced users can change Flatpak files if desired now since they moved from /usr/etc to /etc/.
  • Updated Mesa to version 23.2.1.
  • Updated boot menu for new images and simplified it.
  • Waydroid now has the required properties for Steam Deck images. No need to add ro.sf.lcd_density=215 manually.
  • Steam Deck images have a longer progress bar length.
  • A few preliminary ASUS ROG Ally additions.
  • Steam Deck images now use steam-patch which is especially useful for the ASUS ROG Ally and other handheld PCs.
    • Enabled TDP control on non-deck hardware covered by steam-patch too.
  • Steam Deck images are now using some of the peformance tweaks from this Medium article.
    • Kyber I/O scheduling from BFQ
    • Disable watchdog
    • Raise memlock limit
      • Fedora already includes the 1000hz tick for the kernel & MGLRU.
      • Once Valve solves their issue with CPPC in the Steam deck's firmware the Bazzite can also utilize amd-pstate to save on battery.

Fixes

  • Fixed handygccs not working on other hardware outside of the Steam Deck.
  • Fixed Steam not opening after entering sleep mode.
  • Corrected issue with updater run from systemd.
  • Call daemon-reload when installing OpenTabletDriver & Resilio Sync.
  • Correct typo that caused issues in Bazzite Portal.
  • Fixed Nvidia images losing kernel arguments by having them checked on every boot.
  • If hostname is too long for Distrobox to function properly, it will reset to "bazzite".

Full changelog here.

Two Million Image Pulls!

WE DID IT!

Today we crossed two million image pulls. Specifically we have 2,005,118! We crossed one million on July 19th.

Some minor updates for this new million. Kinoite continues to be the most popular image. However, silverblue-nvidia has snuck in and claimed second place from kinoite-main, rounding out our top three. base-nvidia comes in fourth, which is basically an "empty" image with Fedora and no desktop -- so that means plenty of you are using that as a base image and building something with it, great job!

Though pulls aren't an indicator of users, this means that we've had a two million daily upgrades, which isn't a bad start!

Fedora Podcast!

We'll be on the Fedora Podcast next week with Timothée Ravier from the CoreOS team. Without his work this project wouldn't be possible so we're looking forward to talking about what's coming down the pipe!

Don't forget F39 is here!

Also a quick reminder that we are publishing images for F39. They don't get published to the image list but they do exist for most of the images. Take a peek in the packages section for the image you care about and give it a shot! We're feeling pretty good about F39 being a smooth transition for users.

And we hope you'll be around to help us hit 3 million!

Announcing expanded support for Asus, Framework, and Surface Devices

Over the past few weeks contributors have reworked parts of our build system to support more hardware. Reusing cloud patterns allows Universal Blue to offer pretty awesome Nvidia support that's baked right into the image. This has always been a special case, something we only did for Nvidia support. We've now successfully productized the pattern into something that we can repeat quickly.

Devices like certain Asus laptops sometimes need special tools, and these laptops are supported by projects like asus-linux. They not only provide tools, they also hook you up with the right kernels that you need. Similarly, the linux-surface project provides special kernels for Microsoft Surface devices. They provide the tools and repositories needed to get Fedora working great on those devices. But you have to set that up by hand. Ewww.

Bazzite on a Surface

One of the strengths of the cloud-native pattern is our ability to use existing Fedora base images, and then automate the post-installation steps as new composable layers, and then mix and match what we need. Both Asus and Surface devices can also come with Nvidia cards, which means we can use the existing Nvidia images to help us compose Nvidia-enabled images on top of the good stuff we need from asus-linux and linux-surface! These are now ready to test!

The Framework Experiment

The Framework 13 laptop was a unique prototype in this. It was only available as a custom spin of Bluefin to gauge interest. We've reworked that repo to line up with the rest, so instead of being Bluefin-specific you can now enjoy a wider variety of images for your Framework.

If you're wondering if we plan on supporting the Framework 16 and new AMD Framework 13 then you're in luck, it's just another set of parameters we can add. We're hoping to get feedback from folks who get this hardware so we can enable it!

PXL_20230717_145444220

Why do it this way?

Both asus-linux and linux-surface have existed for a long time, what's the benefit of doing it this way? We list these benefits in Why would I use these?, but these images are a real world example of how the pattern works.

Both of these projects have done the hard work and provided the community with the right bits. All we do is automate that and run it every night and on every merge. If it works, it ends up on your machine, if it doesn't work, your machine still works. It's broken in our GitHub repository and it doesn't get to you. Instead we use one of the strongest advantages that we get with open source: It's easier to fix things when you do it together. When the nerds figure it out, the builds pass, and THEN you get the image on your machine. GitOps for the win!

The one gotcha is that we still need to do some post-installation steps manually. You might have had to do this as part of installation, where we ask you to do a just framework-13 or just nvidia-set-kargs in order to get the right kernel parameters in place. We expect this limitation to go away someday and hope to declare kernel arguments directly in the Containerfile.

Testers Wanted!

The amount of images we're generating is getting larger, so give these a spin and let us know how you get on!

Bazzite Buzz No. 4

Welcome to Bazzite Buzz #4!

Bazzite is a custom image of Fedora 38 designed to bring the best in Linux gaming to your PCs, including the Steam Deck. This newsletter highlights all the work we are doing to bring gamers the best goodies for their PCs and handheld gaming devices.

If you are new to a Universal Blue project then here's some back filler. These images follow the continuous delivery methodology of development. That means we're constantly adding new things, so let's get started!

Today we have released a new batch of online ISOs. Our offline ISOs that we had released earlier had some issues with the Steam Deck's resolution, but eventually this will all be sorted out. When that happens we will release a new batch of offline ISOs in the future. In the meantime, grab the latest online ISO and make sure to connect to the internet in the installer.

We also now support Framework, Lenovo Legion, and ASUS devices with their own special images. Generic controller support for handheld PCs with our addition of hanygccs. In addition, Tailscale now has support out of the box and the GNOME images include the Tailscale status extension too. Fleek is temporary removed until the non-interactive installer is finished. KDE images can now share their screen properly on Wayland with the inclusion of xwaylandbridge. We also added android-udev-rules to the base image and a just command to add scrcpy. This can also give you access to guiscrcpy to mirror your Android phone.

Here is guiscrcpy mirroring an Android phone.

Adwaita Steam skin using Decky's CSS Loader plugin on a desktop Bazzite image.

(Yes it works on KDE Plasma too.)

We'd like to thank all of our contributors and those who are helping us troubleshoot any issues in our newer builds.

New Features

  • Added support for Framework devices - thanks for the inspiration pitstoptech!
  • Added support for ASUS devices - note that the Ally does not work yet, star that repository to follow along, we're pretty close!
  • Added support for Lenovo Legion devices.
  • Might as well remind you that we have Microsoft Surface images too
  • Added nct6687 driver for lm_sensors since it is needed on certain AMD B550 motherboards.
  • Added handygccs for handheld PCs.
  • Added Tailscale support out of the box.
  • Added Linux Mint's Web App Manager application.
  • Added Waydroid utilities.
  • Added Solaar and Resilio Sync to Bazzite Portal.
  • Oversteer is now added via udev rules so it does not have to be layered.
  • Removed AdwSteamGtk since it is recommended to install this theme via the CSS Loader Decky plugin.
  • vm.max_map_count increased to match SteamOS.
  • Signing is now removed from Bazzite Portal since it is now automatic.
  • Nvidia images now has a helpful message about secure boot.
  • GNOME images now play a sound when the battery is low.
  • GNOME images now include the gamerzilla-shell-extension
  • GNOME images now include the Tailscale status GNOME shell extension.
  • Steam Deck images will now build Steam RPM to avoid RPM Fusion dependency issues.
  • KDE color control is now added except for Nvidia images.
  • Corrected issue with Garry's Mod's just command.
  • Standardized nomenclature for just commands concerning game fixes.
  • Added a just command for installing Adwaita-for-Steam, will be automatically updated.
  • Added a just command to fix SteamVR on desktop images.
  • Added a just command to completely remove and reset bazzite-arch.
  • Added a just command xwaylandbridge for KDE Plasma images. This fixes screensharing issues.
  • Added a just command to add scrcpy.

Fixes

  • Fixed numerous issues with Steam.
  • Fixed numerous issues with Distrobox containers
  • Fixed hide/unhide GRUB just command.
  • Use current GRUB paths.
  • Added default-enabled option to disable TDP and other hardware controls on non-deck hardware. This should fix TDP issues on other devices.
  • Moved extest back on desktop images and is optional to use.
  • Fixed Steam Deck images having a broken "Return to Game Mode" shortcut if they had desktop auto-login enabled.
  • Fixed bazzite-hardware-setup executing every boot.
  • Fixed other auto-login issues on all images.
  • Adjustments to the bazzite-arch container.
  • Fixed justfile creation. Currently, this only gets written if the file exists. Create it when the file doesn't exist instead.
  • Reorganized just commands.
  • Lutris dependency for PCEM is now added.

Full changelog and ISOs for the 1.2.0 release here.